Introduction to Piano Shooting

Introduction to Piano Shooting | Appreciation | Reflection

1960 black and white film for 85 minutes

Produced by Carlos Film Company of France.

Director: Fran?ois Truffaut Screenwriter: Fran?ois Truffaut Marcel Moussy Photography: Karl Raoul Kota Main Actors: Charlie aznar (as Charlie Claire/Edward Saloyan) Mary Dubois (as Rena) Nigel Berry (as Teresa) Albert Hermi (as Sego) Claude Mansa (as Sego)

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With the melodious piano sound, the credits at the beginning of the film are superimposed on the keys of a piano flying up and down. At the end of the music, we saw a figure running away desperately in the dark, and a car with lights on behind it rushed at him. He turned into a narrow alley and got rid of the car chasing him, but he fell to the ground instead. Fortunately, he was saved by an old man passing by ... this man is Seger, the brother of Charlie, the protagonist of this film. He came to his brother's house and told him that there were two robbers, Noisy and Hector Nestor, who were following him around because of the uneven distribution of spoils, so he entrusted his son Fido to his care and told him to be careful.

Sego and Charlie came to a noisy bar, and Charlie sat at the piano to accompany the singer and dancer. The bar owners Polino and Sego are talking loudly about Charlie's talent. Suddenly, two gangsters chasing Sego broke into the bar. Charlie hid his brother behind a pile of cartons. The singer Bobby Laboant sang a cheerful song. People continued to play and dance and finally escaped a disaster.

The crowd dispersed and Charlie was ready to go home. Polino, the owner of the bar, told him that Liu Bing, a beautiful barmaid, liked him very much and advised him not to fall in love. Sure enough, Reina was waiting for him at the door and asked Charlie to accompany her to the night outing. When they were walking, Charlie tried to grab Lena's hand, but she dodged. Charley returned to his residence, and Clasey, a street angel separated from him by a wall, came to spend the night with him.

The next morning, Charlie woke his nephew Fido to go to school and went downstairs to the street himself. Mulan and Hector Nestor, who were waiting in the car, forced Charlie into their car with pistols and found Reina's residence, forcing her to get into the car together to help them find Sego's whereabouts. Cars are speeding in the streets of the city center. Liu Bing used his quick wits and deliberately stepped on the accelerator and ran a red light. The police caught up with and stopped the robber's car. Rethnara grabbed Charlie's arm and roared off, leaving a noise and Hector Nestor entangled with the police.

Raina took Charlie to her house. Charlie saw the wall covered with large photos and performance posters of the famous pianist Edward Saroyan. In bed, Charlie told Reina about his experience. It turned out that he was the famous and talented Edward Saroyan. Before he became famous, he and his wife Theresa lived a happy life. He studies hard and practices everywhere, hoping to become a great pianist. Teresa also tried her best to find a way for him. One day, an agent said to Teresa, "I can make your husband famous, but you must be my lover." On the night when Teresa, who loved her husband deeply, was appointed as her agent, Edward Saroyan became an instant hit, and his name appeared at the gates of major concert halls and opera houses. The radiant Edward made curtain calls frequently in the stormy applause of the audience. But after returning home, his wife was very cold to him, and Edward had unspeakable distress. Day after day, the rift between the two is getting bigger and bigger. Finally one day, when Edward wanted to kiss his wife, Teresa told the truth. She felt that her body was dirty and insisted on not letting her husband touch her. Although I broke off contact with my agent, I couldn't find her sincerity to love her husband. After hearing this, Edward was like thunder, unable to bear the fact that his glory was so dirty, so he bent down and ran downstairs. When I ran downstairs, I suddenly thought of my wife in great pain. When he ran upstairs, Teresa had already opened the window and committed suicide by jumping off a building.

The next day, the newspaper published: "The famous pianist Edward Saroyan disappeared after his wife committed suicide."

Edward Saloyan went to a bar in Polino under the pseudonym of Charlie Claire, and made a living by playing the piano and chatting. After he fell in love with Reina, Polino, the boss, was very dissatisfied with Reina, critical and difficult to get along with. That day, just as he insulted Reina, Charlie stepped forward, had an argument with him, and then got into a fight. Porino grabbed a dagger and fought with Charlie all the way to the basement. Porino put down the dagger and grabbed Charley by the neck. Charley struggled, touched the underground dagger and stabbed Polino in the heart from behind. When the police arrived, Reina and Charlie slipped out the back door and drove a car borrowed by Reina to the western mountains where they were hiding.

Noise and Mr Nestor, two robbers, because they couldn't find Charlie and Rena, in order to follow Seger, after conspiring with the female doorman, they cheated Krasis, who took care of his son Fido, forcibly kidnapped Fido in Charlie's home, put the child in the car as a hostage and gave it to Seger, heading for the snow-capped mountains. When they reached the foot of the mountain and crossed a small bridge, Nestor slipped and Fido took the opportunity to escape.

Charlie stopped Reina and went up the mountain to see his brother alone. After the two brothers met, Charlie told him that Paulino was killed by mistake. Sego left him a pistol and went out with his partner. At this moment, the noise and Mr. Neist are not far from Diego's hiding place. Shortly after the attack on Diego, the two sides started a gun battle. Raina was afraid that something would happen to Charlie and ran to him. Neist shot her, and Rayna tumbled from the top of the mountain to the bottom. At this time, Sego and his associates arrived, while brunh and Mr. Neist drove away. Charlie and Fido watched in pain as Reina lay dead in the snow.

At the end of the film, Charlie returned to the bar and continued to play music about the vicissitudes of life. At the beginning of the film, the keys flying up and down filled the screen.

Distinguish and appreciate

Shooting at the Pianist is the second feature film shot by Fran?ois Truffaut. His first film, Four Hundred Times, was a successful attempt to get a camera in the "new wave" after he put down the pen of film criticism in the film handbook. Although this film is deeply influenced by American B-rated films, it is not difficult to see the "author film" route that Truffaut has always advocated.

The film tells the story of an artist who loves music but doesn't know the world. After an accident in his life, he changed his name and surname, hoping to drag out an ignoble existence and live in peace, but the disaster came from his mouth. Pianist Edward Saroyan and his wife Teresa have been living a happy and peaceful life. Edward is eager to become a world-famous artist one day. Out of love for her husband, the considerate wife accepted the dirty conditions of an agent who could have sex. After losing her virginity, she was mentally unbalanced and committed suicide by jumping off a building in shame. His beloved wife endured humiliation for herself and even died tragically. Edward is so miserable that he has no face to see the world again. Time flies. He went to a small town bar to play the piano, but because his brother had a bandit problem, he was implicated, kidnapped first, and then shot (Truffaut named the film "Shooting at the Pianist" with sympathy and irony). More unfortunately, Rayna, a kind girl with self-respect and self-respect, comes from a reverence and love for the pianist. She was afraid that Charlie would be killed, but she was shot and killed by gangsters. Any audience with a sense of justice will feel sad and unfair about it.

There are many unforgettable scenes in this film. For example, when the bar singer Bobby Lapointe was covering for Seger, his Strawberry Praise is still widely circulated. Another example is the robber Aeneas, who swore that his clothes were made of metal by the Japanese and said, "If I lie, my mother will die immediately." As soon as his voice fell, an old woman standing in the street fell down at once. These shots have been included in the classics.

Trevor, born in 1932, was only 28 years old when shooting this film. Because he just put down the pen of the film critic, the film criticism principles and film creation methods he advocated are still clearly visible in his early works, while in his middle and late works, the sharp-edged style seems to have disappeared because of his excessive indulgence in venting love.

Truffaut once expressed his views on "author films" to American film critics. In view of the fact that before 1950s, Hollywood always implemented the producer system, everything was decided by the producer, and it was difficult for the director to develop his own creative style, so Truffaut proposed: "The future film will be more personal than the novel, and it will become an autobiographical form, just like the confession of a private diary." It should be said that Truffaut's idea has been fully reflected in some films today. Margaret Dura's films with strong literariness and unique personal style, such as Lover and the recently published Lover of North China, can be called "confessions of a private diary".

Truffaut believes that the works of several famous French directors, such as Jacques Tadi, Eric Rommel, robert bresson, Jacques Becker and Jean-Luc Ge Daer, can all be classified as "author films". The starting point of "the author's theory" is that a film made by a director with a certain concept must exactly reflect his own thoughts. When writing articles, novels and poems, people often say that "writing is like a person" and filming should be like a person. Only when the director controls the whole shooting process can he faithfully express his personal thoughts. In this film, Truffaut tries to practice his own ideas and expresses his unfairness and helpless despair to the society through the fate of the protagonist. A great artist, once famous, was unknown because of the tragic death of his beloved wife. Unfortunately, he lives in a humble alley with prostitutes and lives by playing the piano in a bar. However, it is this kind of life that often leads to complications. After the lover encounters misfortune, he still has to go back to town to play the piano and live this life to make a living. Now only the piano can pour out his deep sorrow. In order to express his anger and despair at this social injustice, Truffaut chose Charlie aznar as the leading role in this film. Born in 1924, Charlie was a famous French singer in the 1950s and 1960s, and he was also famous internationally. He is a descendant of Turkish Armenian immigrants and a folk singer handed down from generation to generation. His singing is full of ridicule and despair of social injustice. Truffaut chose him to express his feelings through him. In fact, he also fully embodies the director's intention.

Regarding the film criticism concept of "the author's theory", Truffaut thinks that there is no distinction between good and bad movies, and only the director can distinguish between good and bad movies. A bad director may make a seemingly good film because of a good script or the light of a famous actor, but in the eyes of strict film critics, this kind of film is worthless; On the other hand, the interest of film critics will not be reduced if a good director meets a bad script and actor, or if an unpopular film is made due to budget constraints. To take a step back, all the films that a good director can't produce are good, and he sometimes makes mistakes, but it doesn't matter, because it is important to understand a director's consistent thoughts and ideas, as well as his ideological trajectory from the beginning to the mature stage of his whole film career. Every work of his may be an integral part of all his thoughts. As a reflection of his thoughts at a certain stage, naturally his works may have good and bad, success and failure. This is the case with Bergman's films. It is excellent when it is good. It's okay when it's not good, but it's not good after all. Another example is jean renoir, who often makes different attempts, and his innovations are often beyond his time. 1936, he made a film called Tony, ten years earlier than the Italian neo-realism movement. The style of "The Devil Wearing Prada" and "Tony" he shot on 1937 is completely different, and the gorgeous style of the film is even worse than that of similar movies in Hollywood. Then at 1939, his Rules of the Game was the first psychological film to abandon the absolute principle of good and evil in human nature. At that time, French audiences and film critics refused to accept the film. Commercial failure doesn't mean it's a bad movie. On the contrary, many years later, French film critics corrected their initial evaluation, and generally believed that this was Renoir's most unique and artistically exquisite film. As one of the first-class directors in France, he is recognized by the international film industry. In short, from the perspective of "author", the "author" must be a person with profound literary attainments and certain opinions on social life, such as Jean Cocqueteaux. They constantly innovate, constantly surpass themselves, and constantly explore various film means to express their thoughts and concepts.